Bessent, 53, is well known in the global macro investing
world. He is also widely considered a protégé
of Soros.

In 2011, he rejoined Soros Fund Management — a
family-office hedge fund — as its chief investment officer.
Earlier in his career, he had run
Soros' European investments for eight
years before setting out on his own.

"I like this. It's just like journalism — you gather a lot of
information and make a decision, but instead of writing a story
with an angle, you make an investment with an angle," Bessent
said in Steven Drobny's book "Inside
The House of Money."

After graduation, Bessent went to work for Brown Brothers in
equity research for about six months. As he told Drobny, he hated
it. He then went on to help manage the money of a wealthy Middle
Eastern family.

After working for the Middle Eastern family, Bessent
joined Kynikos Associates, the hedge fund
founded by short seller Jim Chanos. In 1991, Bessent made
the move to Soros Fund Management.

Bessent worked at Soros Fund Management from 1991
until 2000. By age 29, Bessent was running Soros' European
fund.

Going solo

In 2000, the then-37-year-old Bessent left Soros and decided to
start his own hedge fund, Bessent Capital, based in London and
New York.

"George is going to be 70 in August and I think his parameters
have changed," he
said at the time. "I am a young guy. If I were 20 years
older, I would probably have the same attitude that he has and
would be happy with double-digit returns. However, over the past
nine years I have had a compound annual return of 30 [percent] in
Europe on a capital base of $1 billion to $2 billion and I hope
to be able to replicate that."

The London
skyline.MagnusL3D via Compfight
cc

Bessent was quickly able to raise $1 billion for the fund.

He ended up losing more than 10% in his European stock fund
in the first half of 2001,
according to Bloomberg. His investors started to pull
out, so he decided to move back into macro investing. He ended up
returning outside money and transitioning to a family-office
format in 2005.

In 2007, he was appointed as director of research and strategy at
Protégé Partners, a New York-based fund of funds.

He had been in the middle of forming Key Square Group, the
macro fund, when he was recruited by Soros Fund
Management in September 2011.